Month: September 2013

While we wish every great idea that turns to crowdfundng reaches it’s target, the reality is that you probably won’t hit your target. On kickstarter it’s only around 40% of projects that become fully funded and on Indiegogo the rate goes down to only 13.68%! (on the flexible funding option)

In our experience the key factor has been peoples lack of capacity. They simply don’t have the man power to have at least three people or around 15 hours to devote to working on the campaign every single day. Crowdfunding is not a last minute ditch to make some quick cash. It all comes down to your level of preparation, 3-4 months should put you in the right frame. During that time try and increase your social media presence but make sure it’s an engaged following where people and chatting, commenting and liking.

So here are some tips.

On launch day already have 10%.

2/3 of the way in have something new to say/ new angle

Your rewards have to entice and be worth the value your putting on them as well as relevant and of course fun names help!

Have a capacity of at least 15 hours per day to spend on the Crowdfund

In the articles I’ve linked to below they contribute the success to;

making sure you have a video- people like to see who’s behind the great idea for trust and reassurance

Your social media presence pre launch- they showed that the number of your facebook friends is related to the success rates

To try and get featured on the homepage- though this is pretty much up to the platform to decide

Setting your campaign to be 30 days not 60- You’ll get tired and bored just like your fans/customers

It defeats evil on a regular basis, has the majority of songs dedicated to it and if you’re lucky its what gets you up in the morning ( your love for your job that is). In crowdfunding there’s a lot of love, you’ve got to love the product/service your pitching and getting other people to love it too. People want to believe that what you are going to do with their cash is going to make a tangible difference to their world and they need to see the passion and conviction from you that will then lead them to connect emotionally with you and they will naturally want to help you out. It’s what gets them to dig their hands in their pockets.

It’s pretty tough trying to fake love so if you’re not being authentic you’re going to have an uphill battle on your hands. And if you don’t believe in what your doing you’re certainly not going to convince anyone else.

Plus if you’ve got these peoples love then you have to take care of it, to turn it into loyalty (another appropriate L word). You might want to do another crowdfund in the future and if you have used their money and not thanked them for it or shown them what you’ve been able to achieve with it they are unlikely to feel like giving you more. Brewdog are currently on their third equity crowdfund and they couldn’t have done it without an extremely loyal fan-base they’ve nurtured.

Now the most obvious blog for K would be about a rather famous crowdfunding platform that has in the last year extended into the UK. But no, I was determined to find our own K. So I came up with Killer Ideas. I’ll talk about platforms another time – wait for P!

Killer Ideas are what makes a crowdfund. They are the hook that makes people’s ears prick up, and then entices them to put their hands in their pocket. SoLoCo works on the principle that a crowdfund has pillars that you can base your campaign on as follows:

Of these, the critical pillar is the hook – and if your product or service doesn’t have a hook you need a killer idea within your campaign to make one.

Nucoco Chocolate Wall

When we crowdfunded with Nucoco we wanted to raise funds to help a chocolate company afford its branding and packaging. At first glance you may feel this would be easy ‘everybody likes chocolate’. But do they like it enough to donate more than the sum of a chocolate bar? The product was delicious, but what would make them stand out from other hand-made chocolate houses? So, we had to create a hook. Our ‘killer idea’ was to sell handmade chocolate and cake bricks that at the end of the campaign would form an edible installation. So we went all Willy Wonka – even to the point of hiding a ‘golden ticket’ worth £1000 in one of the bricks.

If you’re product or service doesn’t make waves, think of your killer idea first and how to build that into your campaign. Remember the social media world is a noisy place. Killer ideas can help you to rise above it and be noticed.